Despite being only two years older than her, there was quite a height difference between them. For at four-and-ten years old, he had already had two growth spurts, while Meredith—who was two-and-ten at the time—hadn’t experienced one yet.
She remembered how he couldn’t even believe that he had been adopted. In fact, no one at the orphanage could. There was an unspoken, terrifying rule that it was impossible to get adopted after the age of three-and-ten. And as a result, without any prompting whatsoever from Ma’am Tabitha, Ian had decided to work in a textile factory.
Ma’am Tabitha had objected and offered to somehow get him into a charity school, but Ian had insisted on working at a factory. Several weeks into his ruthless new job, Ian was on his way to the factory when he was stopped by a woman who needed directions to the nearest shoe emporium.
Ian had explained to her that she was in quite the wrong side of town and did his best to explain. When she had asked if he would be kind enough to escort her, Ian reluctantly agreed.
That was so typical of him.
And that was how he had met his adoptive mother. It turned out that the woman, Mrs. Edith Lockhart, and her husband, Mr. Norman Lockhart, were childless. They owned a glass-making factory in East Brentmoor and were only in town for supplies.
Ian eventually met Mr. Lockhart and started life anew at the age of ten-and-four. And down to this day, Ma’am Tabitha used Ian’s story to instill hope amongst the relatively older children in the orphanage.
The timing is perfect, too! His visit will undoubtedly raise the children’s spirits during these lean times.
* * *
It had been a ruddy long time since Kenneth had handled an intellectual challenge as formidable as this one. He and Colin were sitting once more in front of Anthony’s desk, trying to solve the conundrum. Kenneth believed they were at long last on the verge of success.
“Right, so that leaves Mrs. Humphries between Mr. Humphries and Mr. Warwick…” scribbled Colin furiously.
Kenneth looked at the messy scribbles that were supposed to represent the dinner seating arrangement. He and Colin had arranged and rearranged the guests so many times that they were now left with a largely indecipherable mess of a seating plan.
Kenneth glanced once more at the latest change they had made. “Let’s leave her next to Mr. Warwick, Cole. Besides, I do believe Mrs. Humphries would cause a fuss no matter where we put her. Mr. Warwick would be quite capable of tolerating her nonsense.”
“He certainly isn’t her brother, because then they would have the same family name,” muttered Anthony as he stared off into the distance.
Kenneth raised a confused eyebrow, “Yes… that’s right. Do you mean to say that you were under the impression that Mr. Warwick and Mrs. Humphries were related?”
Without so much as looking at him, Anthony continued, “Although if he was her cousin… Yes! That would explain the difference in surnames. However, there is still the chance that they simply aren’t related at all.”
Completely exasperated from his long stretch of mental exertion at this point, Kenneth demanded, “For the love of— What do youmean, Tony? You may as well be speaking gibberish.”
This apparently startled Anthony.
“Hmm? What? I wasn’t saying anything, Kenny. But wouldn’t you agree that Lockhart is a most peculiar surname?”
Colin passed Kenneth the tablet of paper and proclaimed, “I daresay all this rigorous party-planning has finally taken a toll on poor old Tony’s mind. I propose taking him outside for some fresh air and a bit of snuff. What about you, Kenny?”
“I’m quite surprised to say this, but I think I shall stay in here, Cole, thank you. I do believe that we are quite close to cracking this blasted seating arrangement.”
Colin stretched his arms above his head, “Don’t work yourself too hard though, Kenny. If all else fails, we can always ask Mr. Fletcher and Mrs. Oakley about it.”
But Kenneth waved his hand dismissively, “No, no. I can do it. Besides, I’m sure that we have almost cracked it. Go on, then, you two. I hope to have solved this puzzle by the time you return.”
* * *
“For heaven’s sake, Tony. You have to hold yourself together,” Colin hissed.
Those words sent a jolt through Anthony, “What do you mean, Colin?”
The two friends were standing quite close to each other on the front steps of the house. Colin cautiously looked left and right to confirm that no one was within earshot.
“What I mean, Tony, is this… I read the name on Miss Meyer’s letter, too. It was a man’s name, which I see has understandably perturbed you.”
“However, all of these facts are clearly lost on Kenneth, who most likely did not even bother to glimpse who the letter was from.” Colin paused as Mr. Reeves and the other gardeners passed by and bid them a cheerful good morning.
Once they were again out of earshot, Colin resumed, “This is fortunate for us, because I believe that the fewer people who know about your feelings for Miss Meyer the better. Besides, there’s no point in telling Kenneth now, for you have already decided to root out these feelings, correct?”
